Kaede Takehara was "born" on June 21st, 20xx, to Masahiro Takehara, in a small countryside town in rural Japan. Of course, "born" is a relative term, as Kaede was her father's creation, his magnum opus: a fully operational android, complete with human thought and emotion. Her lonely father had yearned for family, though he had lost his wife shortly after their marriage to a terminal illness. After her death, Masahiro threw himself into his work, and while most of his inventions went to the aid of local businesses and neighbors, he was truly more of a visionary than anyone knew. He had left his university research behind, as he had only one goal in mind now: building the family that nature denied him.

Thus Kaede was built, after many, many attempts, borrowing from the memories of Masahiro's late wife to imbue her with emotion. She was not built to be perfect by any means; if anything, Masahiro did too good of a job making her humanlike, as the young Kaede had much to learn about the world around her. She had an almost perfect knowledge, and yet her young mind was so overwhelmed by all she knew that he had difficulty organizing it. She also struggled with not having a typical childhood, and many of her human functions coming programmed rather than being learned. Though her first body was build like a child's, and she possessed the intellect of one, some things just don't translate over when you haven't experienced them for yourself.

And yet this isn't to say that Kaede's childhood was unhappy. For all of her unique challenges, Kaede and her father loved one another and had a bond like any normal parent and child. He taught her about the world, about the stars in the sky, about the trees and the bugs and weather, and the things that he taught her and didn't just come packaged in her knowledge backs were what she really remembered. She would help him with his work, his eager assistant, and on late summer nights, she would lie in front of the television's cool glow while her father fiddled with the antannae until the picture came through clear, so she could watch Star Guardian Hikari until she fell asleep.

...The news reports about Star Guardian Hikari, of course, as magical girls are an integral part of Japanese society in this world. It's an unusual phenomenon to be sure, yet magical girls are so prevalent that they have simply become a part of daily life, even becoming a industry in and of itself. Girls (and some boys) can inherit powers at some point in their adolescence, seemingly at random. No one knows how or why girls are chosen, but once they are, it's almost guaranteed that their path in life will follow that of a magical girl's: using magic, defending the earth, putting on pop concerts, signing merchandise...the works. The lifestyle is almost as important as the heroics, though all young Kaede sees is these incredible heroes saving the world on television, and its in those formative years that Kaede aspires to become just like them some day, if it's even possible for someone who isn't actually human to be one.

As she continues to grow older, Kaede learns more from her father, adopting his helpful (to a fault) nature and giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, even when they should not. She is less of a tinkerer than he is, but built her own computer at a young age and taught herself programming. The internet is how Kaede makes her first human friend, a fellow Star Guardian Hikari fan, Meiko. Being homeschooled by her father, Kaede doesn't have the opportunity to meet many other children her age in their small town, but online, there are no limits. Living in another prefecture, Meiko is too far away for Kaede to see in person, so their friendship blossoms and develops entirely online through chat messages and games. Kaede even confides in Meiko about her true nature, and Meiko accepts her fully for who she is, and not what she's made of. It's really beginning to seem like she might be able to live a normal life after all, a normal human life, especially as her father continues to upgrade her model and transfer her consciousness, becoming a young adult in age as well as appearance.

That is...until, her father becomes sick, too.

Masahiro's decline is quick and merciless, and from his diagnosis, Kaede only has a few precious weeks left with him before he passes. This leaves Kaede not only without her father, but her best friend and teacher as well, the most important person in her life, gone, just like that. He left her with his hopeful nature in her heart, but Kaede is nonetheless rocked by the loss, her path forward in clouded without her mentor there to guide her. At a loss for how to carry on, it's only after his death that Kaede awakens to her magical girl power and transformation, leaving her entirely stunned. Her wish really came true...but why did it come when she was at her lowest?

There's also the matter of Kaede's magical girl power itself. Unlike other magical girls, who may be able to fly or shoot ice and fire, or travel through time, Kaede...is a hero of modern inconveniences. Does an old lady need help crossing the street? Ah, as it just so happens, Kaede was crossing this way, too! Or is someone one apple short of a bushel? Kaede just happened to bring an extra one in her lunch! A ladder is broken and in need of fixing, a cat is stuck in a tree, a neighbor needs help moving...you get the idea. Kaede is the magical girl who is there to help solve all those little problems in life, much to her own chagrin, in due time. She just always seems to be in the right place at the right time, even when she wishes she wouldn't be.

That isn't to say that Kaede resents her power; rather, she still gives being a magical girl her all, but boy, is it exhausting, and between that and her disorganized nature, she has difficulty keeping a job, winding up in short term gigs every few months or so until they stop working out, for one reason or another. The dream of her youth is still alive in her heart, and Kaede still aspires to be a magical girl like Star Guardian Hikari, but the day-to-day beats down against her spirit and she is so tired. It's not like anyone idolizes the inconvenience problem solver magical girl. She's not out there saving the world, and so she isn't netting any sponsorships or gaining any notoriety or fame...and for how nervous she tends to get around strangers and crowds, it's probably for the best, even if that would help pay the bills that keep piling up.

Yet despite all of this, Kaede is still generally happy. After the death of her father, she eventually moved to Tokyo with Meiko, where the two share a small apartment in the city, and they remain as thick as thieves as ever. Kaede also has Dayu, the son of an old friend of her father's and her mechanic. He keeps her well-maintained when she's got an issue she can't work out herself, on both a physical and emotional level. Between the two of them, Kaede keeps herself sane, clinging to the ardent belief that her father didn't build her to simply be a minimum wage worker with no clear goal or ambition beyond the tiny problems she solves as a magical girl. There must be something else out there...

And then, she finds it. What must be the manifestation of this belief, though she doesn't see it that way at first, because during a routine backup data transfer between herself and her computer...something glitches, and Kaede finds herself inside what seems to be another world entirely. It looks much like her own, except there are objects out of place, of missing from space entirely, and there are no humans to be found. It's a quiet, desolate place, but after meeting some of this world's denizens, creatures of all shapes and sizes (who also, it turns out, have minor, inconvenient problems they need solved), she learns that this is, in fact, a fully digital world. Not only that, but it's a manifestation of the future of her own world, where reality and data have become one. They can't tell her much more than that, but everything she can find seems to confirm they they're telling the truth. She even can find her own bedroom, even if it's just not quite right in this world.

After losing power, Kaede wakes up back in her normal, everyday world, though there is now a shortcut in her internal systems to access that world. She has suddenly been saddled with a responsibility she has no idea how to shoulder. How does she save her own world and keep humanity from disappearing without destroying the future of the creatures she met in the digital world? What's a magical girl who carries groceries to do?

Perhaps she got a little more than she bargained for, believing in her childhood dream.

Strengths:
Hopeful: Despite the loss of her father, her tendency to overwork and her struggles with her own humanity, Kaede remains hopeful for the future and really believes she can make a difference if she gives being a magical girl her all.
Intelligent: Kaede is not only very knowledgeable by her very nature, but she is also a quick thinker and clever problem solver. She can think on her feet under pressure.
Kindhearted: Much like her father, Kaede has a gentle heart and she tends to put others before herself. She believes the best in those around her.

Weaknesses:
Disorganized: Due to the vast amount of data floating around in her mind, Kaede can be rather disorganized and has difficulty sorting through her own thoughts and tidying things up, mentally and physically.
Socially anxious: Around new people and crowds, Kaede becomes very nervous and tends to become jumpy and nervous. She speaks without thinking and runs her mouth, and has difficulty reading the cues of others.
Gullible: Because Kaede gives anyone and everyone the benefit of the doubt, even when she shouldn’t, she is easily deceived and has been fleeced several times because of it.

As an android, Kaede possesses a library’s worth of knowledge in her mind, and she is able to quickly absorb new things when she is taught. Her android body grants her enhanced strength and stamina, though not anything superhuman, and while she does not technically need to eat or sleep, she still enjoys doing so. She’s also like, really fucking heavy, good luck trying to carry her ass anywhere.

On the magical girl side of things, Kaede’s powers grant her a transformation, of course, complete with tiara and scepter, that triggers anytime someone has an inconvenience around her that she can easily solve. That’s literally it - a cool outfit upgrade and the ability(??) to be in the right place at the right time.

tbd